Love Bites

LOVE BITES Chapter 13 : Tasting Red Part 2

A/N: Heyo. Sooo sorry for not updating in like... a few months. Hopefully this super long chapter makes it up to you!

Chapter 13 : Tasting Red Part 2

Continuation from previous chapter...

It wasn't long afterwards that we were standing someplace else.

My pink nightgown blew in the cold wind that whirled past us, the soft material tickling my ankles. Trees swung and groaned with protest, their leaves rustling in the night. I stared up at Father; his mouth was moving but his words were a tangled mess in my mind. My eyes flickered from him to the person sitting by themselves on a park bench at the other end of the park.

I could smell them. Human.

"I don't get it, Daddy. I have to b-bite that person?" I shook my head, sinking lower into Mother's embrace. Her arms were comforting, not as much as Alsa's but safe and warm all the same. "Me don't want to hurt 'em."

"And you won't, baby," Mommy soothed. She ran a hand through my long black hair that unlike hers, was more straight than anything.

"Your mother's right," Daddy agreed. He crouched to my level, tucking his short black hair behind both ears. "Listen here, child. All vampires, whether they be of Nobel Blood or not, have the power to alter time when they bite a human. This ensures a sense of security for our kind. Vampires can feed without the bitten human actually aware of our actions, therefore protecting our secret. Do you understand?"

I conked my head to the side. What?

Daddy sighed. "Think of it as slowing down time or perhaps, us vampires moving at such a dramatic rate that humans are unable to comprehend our actions." He paused for a moment, choosing how to best describe this. "Nikki, when a vampire goes to bite a human with the objective of drinking their blood, they are capable of calling on an ability natural to all vampires. This ability allows us to... slow time is the best explanation for it, so that it is perceived we never moved in the first place. For the human, it would feel as if time is moving at the same rate it normally does but in actuality it had been altered, or paused if you will, to allow us immortal creatures to feed without the human ever being aware of our deeper intentions." I listened to each and every word he said. For me, this was a foreign concept. There was so much I didn't know. "We are only capable of controlling time like this for a brief moment," Daddy concluded, "maybe a few seconds, but that is more than enough."

Mother's fingers entwined in my hair. "What your father is trying to say, Nikki, is that they never know you bite them. Or that you drank their blood. They don't feel anything and the puncture wound from your fangs heal within a few seconds. I promise that the experience is painless. You don't hurt them."

I nodded. Mommy said women were always right so this must be true too.

"Of course, there are exceptions," Daddy countered. I looked into his dark eyes, they reminded me of the black paint I would dirty my hands with at home. "Not all vampires behave this morally," he said.

"Yes, that is true," Mommy agreed. I craned my neck back, looking up at her and admiring the way her black hair fell around her cheeks in soft ringlets. "Not only do we possess the trait to alter time but we can also choose whether or not to use it." She held up a finger, as if to further state her point. "In other words, you can allow a mortal to feel your bite, Nikki. In cases such as these, the human is aware of everything happening; the existence of supernatural creatures, the fangs embedded in their neck -- to the human in that kind of shocking situation, it may feel as if they're life is draining away in one short but increasingly long moment."